There are many services out there that allow you to put various "participation" pieces on your website, including registration forms, surveys, etc. I haven't seen many, though, that are free.

Google, which offers MANY good, free services, offers something (for free) that can let you do many of these things that other services charge a lot of money for. Google Docs allows you to manage information online in ways like sharing and asking others for contributions. This can work for registration forms, feedback, surveys, all kinds of stuff. What Google Docs DOES with the information is more limited, but some may find it more useful.

I would recommend starting with a "form" as this is what I see the most use for in congregations. I haven't played around with it a lot yet, but there are probably lots of other fun things you can do with it too.

One example of Google Docs being used is the feedback page for the new ELCA.org. If you go to www.ELCA.org/feedback you'll see what they've done with it. I believe they are receiving a spreadsheet (like an Excel table) with the data people input. It is also possible to embed the form in a page of your own website to carry through the look/feel of your site and not direct to another URL.

To embed a form, just click on the "More Options" button when you're designing your form. This will generate some code that you can enter into your webpage wherever you want it. Note this isn't what you use as a LINK. You'll see a URL to use as a link at the bottom of the page when you're designing the form.

Have fun with this. There are lots of options with this!